Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

INSIDE IOWA STATE
January 18, 2002

Building the ISU budget is forum topic

by Anne Krapfl
Assistant provost Ellen Rasmussen and assistant to the president (budget planning and analysis) Mark Chidister responded to questions during a Jan. 3 noon forum on the FY03 budget planning process.

Chidister said President Gregory Geoffroy and the president's Task Force on Strategic Effectiveness and Budget Priorities are studying two budgetcutting scenarios at this time. Because the 4.3 percent deappropriation in the current fiscal year is being covered by one-time adjustments and cuts, that money still must be removed from the FY03 budget. The reduction in state funding for the year that begins July 1 won't be known until the Legislature adjourns in late spring, but campus leaders and task force members are working with 6 percent and 8 percent scenarios, or cumulative losses of 10.3 percent and 12.3 percent.

When two other factors are considered mandatory cost increases and anticipated new revenues next year the potential shortfalls for Iowa State's FY03 operating budget could be $12.8 million or $17.9 million, under the two scenarios. Chidister said the targeted budget reduction is $16.5 million, a little less than the current worst-case scenario and about 6 percent of the state's appropriation to the university's operating budget.

Rasmussen noted that, rather than "cut X percent," leaders at all levels are being asked to plan broadly and strategically for ways to align resources with programs.

The provost and three vice presidents will send their divisions' strategic plans to Geoffroy and the task force by Feb. 1. The task force's response and recommendations to Geoffroy are due March 1. Geoffroy won't make firm decisions until the Legislature adjourns and the university knows what its state appropriation is for FY03.

The forum was sponsored by the Professional and Scientific Council and is available in a streaming media file from the council's Web site, http://www.iastate.edu/~ps_info/nov01openforum.html. The complete version of this story, including a Q&A, also is online at: http://www.iastate.edu/news/today/2002/jan/PSforum.shtml.